►March 5, 2004 - Rubella Dangers - Medstar via www.wsoctv.com

Comment:  For a perspective on rubella vaccine dangers, go to Scandals: Is Rubella Vaccination Playing A Role In The Rise In Autism?

►March 7, 2004 - Sick children untreated due to MMR fears - Families seek care in US as UK doctors dismiss complaints to avoid triple jab controversy - Sunday Herald, UK - "AUTISTIC children in Britain are being forced to fly to the US for treatment because of the ongoing political controversy surrounding the MMR jab...Up to 10 British children, including a seven-year-old from Edinburgh, have been treated at a specialist centre in Florida for painful bowel diseases after the NHS refused to recognise their symptoms...An investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed that despite medical evidence of a link between the disorder and autism, NHS doctors are ignoring or dismissing the connection because they fear becoming embroiled in the triple jab controversy. Instead of acknowledging a previously unknown condition that inflames the children’s bowels, they say the painful symptoms are caused by constipation."

►March 7, 2004 - Dangerous disease - opinion - Scotland on Sunday - "Up to now, parents who fundamentally oppose the MMR have either had to source and pay for single injections - at up to £350 per course - or gamble that if they leave their children unprotected they will not catch one of the diseases. The former option is becoming increasingly rare, with sources of single inoculations drying up - at the moment the mumps vaccine is almost impossible to obtain. A mass order for single vaccines from the NHS would soon have manufacturers vying to meet the demand, of course, and it looks increasingly sensible to offer parents that alternative, so long as they are willing to pay for a service which is above and beyond basic need. Some will see this as caving in to ill-informed prejudice but this would be a small price to pay to protect all our children from disease."

►January 2004 - Seroprevalence of measles, mumps and rubella antibodies in Luxembourg: results from a national cross-sectional study. - journal article (Epidemiol Infect.)

►March 1, 2004 - MMR uptake causes worry - www.edp24.co.uk

►February 29, 2004 - Health bosses deny MMR deception - Health bosses have denied university students' claims that they were tricked into having the MMR vaccine without their knowledge. - BBC - "A mass inoculation programme against mumps took place at the University of Kent at Canterbury earlier this month after six students caught the disease...Now some students have told a national newspaper they were not told they were being given the MMR vaccine."

►March 1, 2004 - Misreporting Measles Research - National Electronic Library for Health (archive) - www.nelh.nhs.uk - "The research study found that a higher proportion of children with developmental disorder and new variant inflammatory bowel disease had measles virus in their gut tissue than healthy children."

Comment:  This analysis tries to make it appear as if there is no evidence linking MMR vaccine to the measles virus in these children or good reason to believe they might be connected. As for research, there is research evidence linking the two.  As for good reason, these children were vaccinated and had never had the measles.  So the presence of measles virus in their gut probably either means that a) it is measles vaccine virus or b) vaccinated children who get the measles can suffer gastrointestinal problems which may or may not be related to autism. 

►February 24, 2004 - Good Health: Nigerian scientists worry over measles vaccine - www.vanguardngr.com - "The thought of measles often brings to mind the red, blotchy skin rash that  accompanies this common disorder. But the rash is just an outward sign of the more significant changes happening inside the body — especially within the respiratory system. Primarily, measles is a respiratory infection caused by a highly contagious virus that tends to  be serious and even fatal for small children...However, a group of  Nigerian scientists have been worried that despite availability of a certified measles vaccine that has been in use for several decades, the  infection has remained a significant problem in childhood. Their agitation may well change the course of measles vaccination in the near future."

►February 20, 2004 - Scotland: Alarming Rise in Mumps Among Teenagers in Glasgow - International Society for Infectious Diseases via ProMED Mail

►February 23, 2004 - Mumps Outbreak Not Related to Decline in MMMR Uptake - International Society for Infectious Diseases via ProMED Mail - "In fact this outbreak and similar ones like it elsewhere in the UK are not a result of recent falls in MMR uptake -- they are affecting the wrong age group for that -- but are as a result of previous vaccination policy."

►January 3, 2004 - Leading With The Jab To Beat Killers - This Is Staffordshire - "North Staffordshire babies receive the most protection in Britain against three potential killer diseases. The area has come top of a national league table recording the proportion of each district's population volunteering their infants to have the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine."

Comment:  This is simply nothing less than fear mongering.  Neither the mumps nor rubella have ever been considered "killers", although rubella can sometimes be quite serious for a fetus.  And the measles is generally not considered serious in the developed world.  For Scandals columns on the measles and measles vaccine, go to What Is Wrong With This Picture?;  More confusing disease stats;   Playing With Fire - It's Not EASY To Fool Mother Nature;   Don't Worry, Be Happy;  Measles In The Vaccination Age:  Is It Now Deadlier?;   Why We Won't Take No* For An Answer  (*No relationship between MMR and autism);  and Shoot First, Don't Ask Questions Later.  Click here for a BMJ article on disease fear mongering.
 

►January 3, 2004 - MMR vaccine take-up rate will cost lives - The Ham & High Network - "A Top Royal Free doctor has warned that many children will die because of the poor take-up of rate of the MMR vaccine."

Comment:  More scare mongering.